Both with their vast working experience in Europe and UK, USA, Canada and the Middle East has brought with them professional management skills of international standard to manage the KESC, a spokesman said.
The Consortium was handed over control of the KESC at a ceremony by the Privatisation Commission Secretary, Tahsin Khan Iqbal, in Islamabad on Tuesday.
New CEO and CFO along with two new members of the Board of Directors Akhtar M Zaidi and Shan A Ashary were formally introduced to the Chief Engineers and other head of the departments in the KESC Board Room by the outgoing KESC Managing Director Brigadier Tariq Saddozai.
Speaking on the occasion, Saddozai appreciated the co-operation and dedicated services rendered by the KESC engineers and officers. He impressed upon them to display the same motivation for the new management team.
Ashary informed the KESC employees that he also belongs to Karachi and is nostalgic about the city. He said the new owners of KESC Al Jomaih Holding are big investors and with fresh investment will revive the organisation as an efficient power to its customers.
New CEO Frank Scherschmidt said that quick improvement in the technology would be brought about to make the power utility run at full speed. Nexus of consumer, staff, technology and cost effectiveness would be developed, he elaborated.
LETTER TO EMPLOYEES The management has sent a letter to KESC employees in which their past services for the corporation have been acknowledged and an assurance has been given to the effect that there will be no retrenchment, instead KESC's operation and services will be expanded to utilise the current work force.
The letter reads "Dear Employees,"We embark on this journey together with full recognition of your valuable contribution in the past, sometimes under difficult and trying circumstances. The knowledge and experience gained through the process makes you an important member of the KESC team.
We assure you that while we value your past experience, we are committed to further enrich your work lives through talent evaluation, training, team-building, performance-based fair compensation and an enabling work environment. Instead of retrenchment, we will strive to enhance our operation and services.
We re-emphasise the importance of the Employee Suggestion Award Scheme already implemented to reward those of you who pioneer ideas that either reduce operating costs or improve productivity right from the outset."
AGM KESC's 95th Annual General Meeting of shareholders chaired by senior member of KESC Board of Director Khusrow Khwaja and attended by the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the corporation Frank Scherschmidt was also held on Wednesday.
It was told that during the year under review, KESC has again made significant improvement in its financial performance by increasing revenue earning by over Rs 1.4 billion and reducing Transmission and Distribution losses from 37 percent to 34.2 percent.
From the new KESC management besides Chief Financial Officer Mohammad Asghar the newly inducted members of the Board Shan A Ashary and Akhtar Zaidi also attended the meeting.
The new CFO and other member representing the new management said a new corporate culture will be introduced in the KESC. Firstly preference will be given to maximise the generation capacity of the present power plants. However planning for the new generation project will start immediately as a new power plant takes 2 to 3 years for completion.
There is presently a gap of at least 1000 MW between generation capacity and demand so we will initially plan a 1400 MW power plant, they said. They have observed a great potential in KESC and this is one organisation where the interest of the investors and the citizen is the same.
Addressing shareholders, the Directors belonging to the new management said as investors we are one and same; we will therefore look after your interest and the next year when we meet you will definitely notice some change.
They also listened to the comments and observations of the shareholders attentively with great interest and assured them their proposals will not only be considered but will also be implemented
After a lively debate participated by Mohammad Yousuf, Mazhar Chaudhry, Ahmed Parekh, Afif Alvi, Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Arif, Ali Kosar Zaidi, Mohammad Farooq and Mohammad Tanveer, the accounts for the year 2004-05 were passed.
From KESC Chief Controller Finance A. Rauf Yousuf, Secretary Oswald Pearl, Chief Engineers Saeed Mehmood and Shabbir Khattak answered the queries of KESC shareholders.
A resolution appointing Messrs Ford Rhodes Sedat Hyder & Company as the auditors of the company for the next year was also approved.